Posted on 06/19/2008 1:35:34 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick
MUMBAI: Shweta Kumari is waiting impatiently for the new Nano by Tata Motors to hit car showrooms here later this year.
With a price tag of about $2,500, the Nano will cost about half the price of the least-expensive car on the market, easily affordable for Kumari, who works as a software developer.
"I can drop my kid at school, go to work and go shopping more comfortably," said Kumari, who now shares a car with her husband.
But some environmentalists are dreading the prospect of hundreds of thousands of low-cost cars hitting polluted and overcrowded roads around the world in the next few years.
"In the current policy and regulatory framework, the low-cost cars will be disastrous," said Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi.
Carmakers, warily eyeing sliding sales in developed markets like the United States and Europe, disagree.
They argue that the small, fuel-efficient vehicles are a greener option than gas-guzzling SUVs and larger cars as oil hovers above $135 a barrel and as consumers in emerging economies like China, India and Russia get behind the wheel in ever-increasing numbers.
Tata, which introduced the Nano to a rousing reception in January, says its car, the world's least expensive, meets the strictest environmental criteria, and its lean design delivers high fuel efficiency of about 20 kilometers a liter, or 47 miles a gallon, of gasoline.
The car, with a dealer price of 100,000 rupees, or $2,330, will have tailpipe emissions well within Indian requirements. It is less polluting than motorbikes and scooters, Tata Motors said on the Nano Web site.
India is at the forefront of the move to low-cost cars and is doing its best to
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Well said!
Hilarious! Environmentalists don’t care about the poorer economies of the world, let them walk or ride bicycles. Like Al Gore. Let them starve while we turn food into fuel for our cars. Let them die from mosquito carried disease. What a disgusting bunch of hypocrites they are. BTW they don’t have to go to India or China to see pollution, just head for the Southern border of the USA.
I don't think so. You are firing on all cylinders today.
BUMP!
With the help of the unions*, of course!
I predict a concerted intense, relentless and perhaps violent effort, if these cars are ever imported into the US. To institute tariffs of at least 100% to allow the sales (even after factoring in transportation costs).
Rent seeking is always easier than competing.
*Union -- A RICO organization which uses physical coercion to gain economic advantage over non-unions, with the expectation that other industries and services should never attempt to seek a superior salary --- or even parity.
Hasn't worked for the last 60 years, but each generation of incompetents keeps trying.
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